Mourinho addresses criticism from final match

Even though Real Madrid won in their last match at the Bernabeu, there was a dark cloud cast over the stadium as fans were divided over the team’s most polarizing figure. Jose Mourinho wasn’t leaving to much fanfare, and many of the Azulgrana faithful let it be known.

There was much drama also over the lineup which Mou brought out, one that didn’t feature their biggest superstar Cristiano Ronaldo, or Pepe, or Iker Casillas. Mourinho has chosen most of his words carefully, but in this situation he felt he had to defend himself against the media.

“Saturday’s headlines are twisted lies. If I had had to deny everything that was untrue, I would never have done anything else. But this is the last time, and since it’s possibly the last time I’m going to talk about Real Madrid, I would just like to say that the players who were not called up have either been declared unfit by the medical team, or consider themselves unfit,” he said.

“Pepe, Cristiano and Iker Casillas were suffering from back pain and haven’t trained this week and weren’t on form last week either. They considered themselves unfit to play this match,” he added.

Many assume coaches and players are above headlines, and don’t pay much attention to them. However, Mou made it very clear this wasn’t the case, as he pointed the finger directly at MARCA.com and AS.com as instigators in this situation.

“When there is malicious intent, everyone knows and you can write about it openly. The ones who put together the headlines for the front pages know full well that Casillas hasn’t trained for the last two weeks and they could have checked first… their intentions are very clear for me,” he said.

“This is the last time I will speak in public with all the pride of my shirt and the shield. This is the end of a cycle both for me and for Real Madrid and I wish the club all the best,” he concluded.